Alex is (almost) 4 - A Cars Party and good reason for a blog post at last

Apologies to anyone who has been looking at the same WAY out of date blog post for the past 12 months or so…

To make up for it here are some hot-off-the-press photo's from Alex's 4th birthday party yesterday.

It was a big day, lots of planning involved and a cake that almost killed me… the photos below do not adequately capture the preparation, pain and stress involved.

… but we all survived and the party went off without a hitch, lots of lovely friends from daycare as well as friends and family came along, there were games, lots of presents, a bit too much sugar but smiles all round. That evening a very happy and exhausted Alex said 'I'm tired mummy' (FIRST TIME EVER) he took his pass the parcel prize to bed and fell asleep before I could even finish the story (SECOND TIME EVER).

The birthday boy

All the kids got drivers licenses when they arrived

Racing car bears - didn't take a picture when they were all finished but you get the idea

I tried to tell the kids we could just 'look at the cake' no need to cut it up

they weren't having it...

a look of horror from Uncle hOb re the amount of sugar involved

the anticipation

everyone was keen for cake 

duelling blowy whistle things - what are they called?

Piñata fun begins

Alex has a turn

OK, so I had to have a go or we would have been there all night

the rush for more sugar begins

it's like they'd never seen lollies before!

variation on musical chairs - thankfully no injuries

jumping castle - I forgot to take a photo until the party was over so looking a bit sad with just Alex

Will try to do another post before his next birthday!

3rd Birthday Tour - Part 2 Sydney

 
Alex's birthday tour continued home to Sydney a week later (yes I am a good 2 months late with the post) with family and friends gathering for a little party at our place. It kind of worked as a house warming as well (we've been here a year now, you might be sensing a pattern).

Friends in the courtyard thanks to the sun making an appearance

Despite panicking through most of the rainy week leading up to it, even buying a tarp in case we had to cover the backyard, the sun shone brightly on the day and it was great to see our little place full of friends and their various small people.

playing with Fern & Elliot

I was worried there wouldn't be enough little friends for Alex as we don't have that many friends with kids his age so I invited a couple of people from daycare as well. It turns out we had about 12 kids and remarkably the day went off without a crisis. Ok there was one moment when a little girl had found grandpa's electric razor and was inches away from shaving my (female) workmate's head but thankfully the would-be hairdresser's dad arrived just in time to avert that crisis.

Like I said - I was pretty proud of the cake effor

In fact I don't think there were even any tears all day and Alex had a ball getting lots of presents (some of which are still in the cupboard unopened - don't tell Alex); eating his number 3 cake (particularly proud of that one) and some healthy-ish snacks and running around with his balloons and bubbles.

Bubble present was a hit

A train journey to forget and a christmas to remember

This year we decided to have Christmas as a proper holiday for everyone, without any of the family needing to cook and more importantly clean up a big Christmas meal. Grandpa picked Coffs Harbour as it was vaguely between the various family members (on mum's side anyway).

We somewhat foolishly decided to catch the train up to Coffs, "it will be an adventure" we told ourselves, "more interesting than a plane" we assured ourselves.

This was true for the first 7.5 hours of the 9 hour trip. Then Alex had what could only be described as a meltdown. He was overtired, scared of the noisy dark train and wanted out of there - fast. Well, he's a toddler, the other passengers will be understanding You might think but - you'd be wrong.

OK, so it was about 1am when the aforementioned meltdown occurred and the other passengers were more keen to try and sleep than listen to our darling Alex scream the train down. Surprising I know. Even the guard was less than sympathetic offering sound advice such as "can't you give him something to suck to keep him quiet". "He's almost 3 years, not 3 months old - but thanks"

In the end we had to escape the evil glares of our fellow passengers by traveling in the noisy area , between the carriages which only served to terrify Alex even further.

But we survived and arrived at a lovely resort with pools, tennis courts, playgrounds and our fantastic serviced apartment filled with family and lots of presents for Alex. The horrors of the train journey were forgotten as Alex embraced the buffet breakfast - and lunch - and dinner...

Boats and birds and booties...

Ok, been meaning to catchup on some recent adventures, where Alex has met Kookaburra's, boats, practiced lots and of steps, lost a shoe in the mangroves and mud, had aforementioned shoe rescued by his heroic mamma and probably other things I can't remember because it's been a while and I really should have done this blog post a few weeks ago.

Anyway, it's really all about the photos isn't it?

Stair master!

 

Alex meets the locals - who get increasingly daring over the weekend, at one stage stealing a sausage straight from the BBQ.

Being swallowed by his life jacket.

It's kind of like the bath... Just much bigger

Special thanks goes to Captain Ian and First Officer Sandra for organisng such a fantastic long weekend and keeping us afloat! We had a ball, even if we didn't catch any fish.

Location:Hawksbury River, NSW

Gold coasting

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oops... just found a post from November I didn't publish...

Here are some pictures from our (not so) recent trip to visit Amma in the Gold Coast. With special guests Uncle Adam, Aunty Chrissie, Toby & Fudgey (bears) and more...

Not happy with the celebration noises.

Hanging out with uncle Adam

Supporting the GC 2018 bid

Relaxing at Amma's apartment

A bit of driving with Bob

Hopping mad

Mum and baby Roo in the back yard

Last weekend the family and some friends had a long weekend on the South Coast. Before we arrived we'd read that there were kangaroos near where we were staying. "Perhaps we'll catch a glimps of one" we said to each other beforehand, enthusiastically. Alex hasn't see one of Australia's famous bouncy friends yet. Let's not hold our breath we thought, we might see one dart by in the bush nearby.

Well we needn't have been concerned. Driving into the street and past the house we'd hired for the weekend we found a front yard littered - literally littered (which is quite hard to say) with kangaroos. Many of them had joeys in their pouches and concerned protective daddy kangaroos standing guard nearby. The adults in the (human) group were very excited - the smaller member of the crew less so, until one of the little joeys wriggled himself out of his mums pouch and bounced off across the yard and down the road. This was by all accounts one of the most exciting things young master Butler had ever seen. He grinned and giggled as the kangaroo hopped along the lawn and then back to the safety of mum and dad Roo.

A little later in the weekend I decided to try being a kangaroo myself - bouncing around in front of Alex - well this was almost as exciting and he insisted I did it again and again with enthusiastic waving of arms up and down.

It turns out being a kangaroo is hard work. I'm thinking of starting a new exercise/dance graze - "Roomba."

On the beach

View from the house

Beach vegetation

Getting on

Alex is either starting to settle into a new routine or perhaps discovering a new found independence. Last week - for the first time he didn't cry when I dropped him off with the Nanny. Haydn often finds him playing with other kids and barely acknowledging him when he comes to collect him at Daycare at the end of the day and last Sunday Haydn and I actually went out for the night while baby Alex stayed at home with big Alex and mean uncle hOb. I prepared them for tears, for the throwing of food, reluctance to go to bed, general non-compliance... and what happened? Baby Alex watched us leave the house with not a tear, ate all his dinner and then went to bed happily with a giggle - an actual giggle. And apparently it was the same little man.

Art

Ever since Alex developed his fascination with the iPad we have discovered little digital presents from him in surprising places, for example, I find a message in the notepad application that simply says gfdjkl and nothing else. Occasionally he deletes the notes or actions I've taken for work which is not ideal and I guess the parent equivalent to a "dog ate my homework" excuse for not doing the actions from that particular meeting.

Most recently we have been finding random photos and videos appearing on the iPad, frequently of the floor, or a wall, but sometimes they are amusing or what could only be called art.

I've included a selection of works from Alex's first exhibition which he's calling "gfdjkl"















This series is especially amusing I think...

Kicking off with the hard stuff

Alex enjoying another Alex's 'milky wares'.

Some kids start with a lemonade stand, perhaps some handmade shell necklaces, maybe selling cookies door to door. Alex goes straight for the hard stuff, and, I'd say a more profitable business opportunity at these organic markets in Gladesville.

umm... it's not a "sitting castle"

OK, so he hasn't quite become the entrepreneur at 16 months old, but he did enjoy the baby-cino on offer and we couldn't miss the photo opportunity.

And it doesn't stop at baby sized milky drinks, the markets even have a JUMPING CASTLE! Unfortunately adults weren't allowed on the jumping castle so I begrudgingly stepped aside to let Alex, and our friend Dan's daughter Rachel have a bounce.

Enjoying some quality leave gathering... and some more sitting... with Rachel